Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA18456 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 14 Nov 2001 01:54:32 GMT Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 17:45:52 -0800 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Wade's last week's phrase of the day... To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3BF1CCD0.34233B9F@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Accept-Language: en References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D114@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Vincent,
> <Tell them that you worship Satan. This one would really work
> wonders if you
> > had a pet goat running around the house, except that said goat would be
> > eating all your belongings while you watched the door to door religionists
> >
> > scurry away in horror.>
> >
> There was me thinking that my little anecdote would go unread (or
> possibly privately moaned about), so it's been fun hearing all these
> different strategies for dealing with the proselytizers of the world, even
> the more worrying ones like Scott's above (tempting though it is).
"Gomen kudasai!"
Since moving to Japan that was the first time I had had a caller.
Curious, I went to the door. The young Japanese man was surprised to see
a foreigner, but was relieved when I said that I spoke a little
Japanese.
It turns out he was a Seventh Day Adventist. When he found out that I
was not a Christian, he asked me what I believed in. Remembering
Nietzsche, I thought to say, The Earth. "Tsuchi," I replied.
His eyes widened in shock. "Do-ro?!" he asked incredulously, his voice
quavering and stretching the syllables out.
I had no idea what doro was, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
"Hai."
He expressed disbelief, but I pointed out that the Bible says we are
tsuchi and return to tsuchi. (I didn't know the word for dust. "Tsuchi"
means earth or dirt.)
He shook his head but bravely continued his spiel. He tried to sell me a
year's subscription to "The Watchtower" (in Japanese) for 400 yen. I'm
sorry I didn't take him up on it. Then he told me that even I, if I
studied, could be saved, excused himself, and left.
Later I found out that "doro" means mud.
:-)
Bill
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